Focused Mode
- has tight spacing for the rubber bumpers, which seems to, in some sense help keep your thoughts concentrated.
- is centered on the prefrontal cortex and it often seems to involve thinking about things you are somewhat familiar with.
- stepping along the somewhat familiar pathways
Diffuse Mode
- has more widely spaced bumpers that allow for more broad ranging ways of thinking.
- to solve or figure out something new
When we find ourselves stuck on a problem, or even if we're unsure of a situation, the course of living our daily life. It's often a good idea once you've focused directly on the situation. To let things settle back and take a bit more time. That way more neural processing can take place, often below conscious awareness in the diffuse mode. The thing is it often takes time for neural processing to take place, and time, as well, to build the new neural structures that allow us to learn something new.
It's through practice and repetition that we can help enhance and strengthen the neural structures we're building as we're learning something new. Practice and repetition is particularly important for more abstract topics.
Working Memory vs Long Term Memory
Memory of course is an important aspect of learning. There are four slots in our working memory. Things can fall out of those slots unless we keep repeating them to hold them in mind. In that sense working memory is like a not very good blackboard.
Long term memory, on the other hand, is like a storage warehouse. If you practiced and repeated something well enough to get it into long-term memory, you can usually call it up later if you need, although you may need an occasional bit of repetition to freshen the memory up.
It's never a good idea to cram your learning by repeating things many times all in one day. Because that's like trying to build muscle by lifting weights all in one day there's no time for solid structures to grow.
- Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn, by Deep Teaching Solutions.
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